I mentioned in my last post how we in leadership would be better off if, after setting them up to succeed, we then let employees “do their job.”
Seems this article about Marvin Ellison at Home Depot agrees with that sentiment. (I love being vindicated by others…!)
“Leadership as a Human Buffer…” HD’s Ellison says to senior managers: “Leave ’em alone and let them do their job.” “If you have issues, take ’em up with me.”
In other words, it’s about accountability. Marvin, in charge of all U.S. Home Depot stores, says “I’m responsible, you deal with me.” Further, “You corporate managers — stop cluttering up my store managers’ day with superfluous BS. If you need something, I’m your guy. Leave my store people out of it.”
To quote the BusinessWeek article, Ellison “…severely restricted messages from headquarters to the stores during the rest of the week.”
What a concept.
Pay attention here; whether I agree with the article’s commentary onNardelli (I don’t, necessarily), I do truly believe that leaders should be the buffer between those who”do” and those who “interfere,” even if done with good intentions. The article mentions store managers receiving some 200-odd emails and reports per day.
Did you read that??? TWO HUNDRED REPORTS per day!!
Dumber than dirt. When something is that stupid, we’ve got to do two things: first, stop such stupidity from interfering with our troops. Second, when we’ve taken care of that, work to rid ourselves of suchidiotic practices.
But that’s just me…
